1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system and a viewership effect measuring method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ratings measured by a ratings measuring apparatus are widely used as an index indicating the promotion effect of a television program or as an index indicating the level of viewer interest in a matter presented in a broadcast program. A standard ratings measuring apparatus detects a channel that is tuned-in from the antenna line of the receiver onto which the television signal corresponding to the tuned-in channel leaks and transmits information related to the detected tuned-in channel to a center via a communication network.
There are also systems adopted in practical applications whereby tuned-in channels are detected as described above and also ratings information corresponding to various viewer demographic groups is collected by allowing viewers watching television to manually indicate their attributes. The ratings information collected in correspondence to the individual viewer demographic groups, enabling accurate analysis of the viewing tendency of each viewer demographic group, proves to be a useful tool for television programming and for formulating effective advertising targeting strategies. However, such a system requires the viewers themselves to indicate their individual attributes and thus imposes an operational onus on the viewers. There is an added issue in that accurate information may not always be collected through such a system.
These challenges are addressed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3974953 disclosing a technology whereby a dictionary containing preregistered images is referenced to match an image obtained by capturing a image of a current viewer in order to collect attribute information indicating the attributes of the particular viewer without requiring any viewer operation.